Monday's Daily Pulse

What you need to know about Florida today

| 11/11/2013

How to spend Florida's budget surplus

Florida lawmakers have spent years likening their budget decisions to families at the kitchen table deciding which bills to pay. Now that economic tides are rising, those talks are sounding more like whether to upgrade iPhones and PlayStations, buy a new car or pad the college fund. Legislative budget writers expect a roughly $840 million budget surplus when they return to work in the spring 2014 legislative session beginning in March. [Source: Orlando Sentinel]

The shutdown's surprise effect on jobs numbers

In the height of irony, the 16 days of federal worker furloughs and government disruptions may have helped, not hurt, the improved jobs picture. Because of the shutdown, the Bureau of Labor Statistics delayed the release of the jobs numbers by one week to allow more time to collect payroll and household data. That extra time resulted in an above average response rate for payroll data. [Source: AP]

Homebuyers looking for luxuries as market rebounds

Now that buyers are spending money, they want what they want. Items that were once rare expensive add-ons are now becoming more commonplace. And when buyers demand it, builders deliver it, often as part of the base price of a new home. [Source: South Florida Sun-Sentinel]

Marketing by free association

In Miami Beach, Greater Miami Skin and Laser Center patients who buy four high-priced and luxurious anti-aging treatments get the fifth for free. New research suggests the center’s patients won’t only value the complimentary treatment but — because it comes alongside a luxurious, high priced purchase — will consider them to be equally precious. Much more so than if they’d paid a discounted price. [Source: Miami Herald]

Increasingly younger women, men join ranks of those who served

When Richard Simoes left the U.S. Army in 2006, after serving in Kosovo and Afghanistan, he immediately had to transition back to civilian life on his own. He left military life behind to start a lawn service. It wasn’t until after the business collapsed in a faltering economy and someone mentioned to him the GI Bill benefits to which he was entitled, that he thought of himself as a veteran. [Source: Florida Today]

› USF professor Yogi Goswami captures solar energy using salt balls[Tampa Bay Times] To Florida's big utilities, the Sunshine State isn't as bright as its nickname indicates. Too cloudy. Too hazy. Too much darkness. It just doesn't have the pounding rays of, say, Arizona or parts of California. Enter Yogi Goswami, an internationally renowned mechanical engineer at the University of South Florida.

› Money pours in to entice business to Lee County[Fort Myers News-Press] A regional effort to promote economic development is getting business donations behind it and may get tax dollar support as well. The new Southwest Florida Economic Development Alliance has collected pledges of more than $300,000 to promote the area as a business destination.

› Bright idea bundles bulbs, biology[Florida Today] Can a simple-looking light bulb be a cure for a country where people just don’t get enough sleep? The leadership at the Lighting Science Corp., a designer and manufacturer of LED lights, hopes so.